"Lanse!" I cried. "Do you know what you're saying? Don't talk like that!"
"Yes, Governor," nodded Lancelot Biggs sorrowfully, "I'm afraid that's true. Your colony wouldn't want our seeds. For one thing, they're all roses. The Cosmic Corporation offers you all kinds of flowers. For another thing, our seeds are not particularly hardy. Furthermore, I'm afraid a number of them were spoiled in transit when the leaden containers were broken, allowing cosmic rays to seep in—"
"Biggs!" howled Cap Hanson. "Shut up this minute an' get out of here! What do you mean by tellin' lies like that? A number of our containers? It was only one container, and—"
The Governor interrupted him with a smooth lift of the hand.
"Never mind, Captain Hanson. We understand. Er ... thank you, Mr. Biggs, for your frank statement. Gentlemen of the Council, you have reached a decision? Yes, I thought so.
"Captain Murgatroyd, it gives me great pleasure to award you, on behalf of the Iapetus Governing Board, full priority rights to the flower-seed concession on our new colony, as set forth in Rule 14, Paragraph—"
"Ruined!" wailed Cap Hanson. "Sabotaged by a wolf in cheap clothing! Diane, why did you ever marry that falsifying, good for nothin'—"
He broke down. We led him, babbling incoherently, back to the ship.
But there, Diane, who had held up nobly throughout the proceedings, turned to her husband curiously.